Garrulacinae

The Garrulacinae (laughing-thrushes, liocichlas, etc.) are part of the Sylviidae, a huge family including tesias, warblers, tailorbirds, grass birds, laughing-thrushes, and babblers.

Originally part of the Sylviinae, the Garrulacinae have been spun off as a separate subfamily by Sibley and Monroe, posing difficulties in naming it. On the Internet, some Japanese sources call the subfamily チメドリ亜科 Chime-dori a-ka, but since most species of チメドリ chime-dori actually belong to Sibley and Monroe's Sylviinae, I've felt it more appropriate to call it ガビチョウ亜科 Gabi-chō a-ka instead, although this is not actually an approved name.

The naming of the Garrulacinae in Vietnamese is even more problematic since birds named Khướư and Họa mi are found both in the Sylviinae and in the Garrulacinae. I've therefore left the name at Phân họ Khướư. While it is not ideal to use the same name for two subfamilies, it's not without precedent -- the Fringillinae and the Emberizinae for some reason also share the same name in Vietnamese classifications.

Chinese: China is home to a large proportion of the world's Garrulacinae.

The laughing-thrushes are called 噪鹛 zào-méi ('chirping babblers') by naturalists. 噪 zào is a word referring to the chirping of birds or insects. The liocichlas are known as 薮鹛 sǒu-méi ('marsh babblers'). Taiwan, on the other hand, uses a number of names borrowed from Japanese.

The most famous of the laughing thrushes is Garrulax canorus or Hwamei, known in Chinese as the 画眉 huà-méi (畫眉 in Traditional characters) or 'painted eyebrow', after the distinctive pattern around its eyes. Indeed, the name 鹛 méi for the laughing thrushes is possibly derived from the word 画眉 huà-méi. The beautiful song of the Hwamei has made it extremely popular as a cage bird in China and other countries. Huà-méi is probably the only truly popular name among all the so-called 'common names' of the Garrulacinae and has also been borrowed into Japanese and Vietnamese. Huà-méi is also popularly applied to several other members of the Garrulacinae.

Japanese: The Garrulacinae are not found in Japan, although escaped cage birds such as Garrulax perspicallatus (the Spectacled or Masked laughing-thrush) have become naturalised. Most of the subfamily are known as ガビチョウ gabi-chō in Japanese, written 画眉鳥. This is a direct borrowing from Chinese 画眉 huà-méi. Several Taiwanese species have their own distinctive names in Japanese, including Garrulax leucolophus, G. chinensis, G. poecilorhynchus, and Liocichla steerii, dating back to the era of Japanese control (pre-WWII). In addition, G. morrisonianus also has a name borrowed from Taiwanese.

Vietnamese: Vietnam is home to a large number of Garrulacinae. Most are called Khướư, a name also applied to many of the Sylviinae (babblers). The are well-known as cage birds in Vietnam. Three members of the Garrulacinae have distinctive names:

The Họa mi is well-known and found in all Vietnamese dictionaries. On the other hand, a search of two monolingual dictionaries (see Sources for their names) turned up only Khướư and Liếu điếu; the two names Bò chao and Bò chiêu were not found.